Drug-resistant bacteria are causing the deaths of at least 23,000 Americans a year, a problem exacerbated by injudicious use of antibiotics in treatment of patients—and their pervasive use in agriculture.

We learned back in the mid-1970s that livestock antibiotics increase the presence of drug-resistant bacteria in farmworkers. Since then, meat and poultry production has nearly tripled while business, government and public advocates have battled over industry regulation. ProPublica charts that battle’s history.

Four tuberculosis patients in India were found to be untreatable with the best available drugs. Experts who say the country’s program for dealing with the disease does not adequately address resistant strains are calling for an overhaul of its treatment methods, including rigorous adherence to medication regimens.

A young biochemist has caused a ruckus in the scientific community with her claim that one of the basic elements in the formula that has long been considered to define the building blocks of life may be swapped out—and for arsenic, no less.

The U.S. military’s evacuation chain that removes wounded soldiers from combat, while effective at saving lives, has helped give rise to an antibiotic-resistant superbug that has spread to civilian hospitals in the U.S. and Europe.